Just One Night
by ShutUpAndPull
Summary: One shot based upon a found Tumblr prompt - Set during episode 3x09: "Once they wake back up in the car, none of their devices work nor will the car start so they have to walk to a nearby farm to use the phone. The farmer's wife offers to let them stay, and since she thinks they're a couple anyway, they get to share the guest room."


**Just One Night**

Beckett growled in frustration and threw open the car door, leaving it open as she stomped into the blackness of the empty highway and unleashed a deafening expletive on the world. Castle's body shuddered at the unexpected outburst before his mouth turned upward in a soft grin as he fiddled hopelessly with his unresponsive phone. She wasn't one to lose her cool like that - or certainly one to express it so plainly - and he couldn't help but find it, as he did so many of her other idiosyncrasies, hopelessly endearing.

"Mine's still not working," Castle called to her out the open door, her heels clomping along the asphalt in a path absent any real destination. "The Men in Black really fried this thing. Wonder if I can send them a bill for the replacement." Any frustration he might have felt was buried beneath the childlike elation he was still high on over the evening's utterly peculiar course of events. Strange beams of electronics-killing light and faceless interrogators in the shadows, to him, were the very epitome of awesome. "Any luck with your phone?"

"Yeah, Castle, I'm just out here pacing in the middle of the night on a deserted highway for kicks," Beckett snapped. "Now I can finally check it off my Bucket List."

Castle leaned forward enthusiastically in his seat and the shoulder strap of his seatbelt abruptly locked him in place. "You-" He reached down and pressed the button to release his body. "You have a Bucket List?" He stared out into the darkness and awaited the delicious confirmation he so hoped for.

Beckett balanced an arm against her open door and leaned down into the car, her face a clear map of aggravation in what dim light the moon high above afforded. She didn't say a word, yet Castle heard her loud and clear. "A discussion for another time, maybe," Castle mumbled. "Understood." Beckett climbed back into her seat and sat silently as he looked on. "So, what should we do now?" he asked after allowing her a few moments to calm.

"I don't know, Castle. I'm thinking, okay?"

Each of them turned and gazed out their respective windows, the bleak night landscape offering little in the way of meaningful inspiration. "We could try to hitch," Castle offered, sounding all too enthused by his own suggestion. "You're hot. Someone would definitely stop for you."

Beckett slowly pivoted her head towards him, discernibly less than taken with the idea. "And which someone would that be, Castle? Have you seen one car go by since we've been stuck out here?"

"I, uh, I guess not. But I still stand by the hot thing," he said and she swallowed an involuntary smile. "Okay, then maybe we just try to get some sleep and figure something out in the morning. Maybe the M.I.B. will beam our power back on when we're not looking. They have ways, you know." He was playing, of course, but he did secretly hope.

"I don't want to sleep here, Castle," she objected, "not with…these uncomfortable seats." She instantly rolled her eyes at the sound of her own words. It would've been obvious to anyone that wasn't what she was really thinking. "Besides, we'd freeze out here."

"Well, I'd be happy to-"

"Zip it, Castle," she interjected, knowing full well where his train of thought was headed.

"Just trying to do the chivalrous thing, Detective," he said to assure her, with flimsy earnestness, at best. "Well," he sighed, "I suppose if the thumb and a nap are out, that only leaves one thing." Beckett asked him to spill it with a mere lift of her brow. "Hope you're wearing your comfy shoes tonight because it looks like we're walkin'."

 **xxxx**

Castle released a sudden and boisterous laugh, ending the near fifteen minutes of continuous whistling he'd been engaged in since they began their walk towards anything resembling civilization. Beckett was several paces ahead - forever the cop, forever the lead – and she moved swiftly and intently through the cold night breeze cutting against them. "I just realized," he called out, "we should totally mess with Ryan and Espo when we get back. It would be hilarious."

Beckett stopped and turned back as he upped his pace to catch up with her. "What are you talking about now, Castle?"

"Did you like my road tunes?" he asked disjointedly. "Every good road trip needs a soundtrack."

Beckett drew her hands to her hips standoffishly. "I'm so glad you're having fun with all of this, Castle. I'm trying to stay focused here, okay, and your soundtrack," she air-quoted, "isn't helping."

"Well, excuse me for trying to make a bad situation a little bit better, Detective," he snarled with feigned soreness before his face lit up. "The guys would freak if they thought these things were hickeys." His fingers brushed at the mark left on his neck by their evening's captors. "Don't you think? We _so_ need to play this up." He watched her anxiously with his goofy grin as she caught up.

"Are you twelve?" Beckett asked, and not for the first or fifth time since they'd met.

"Am I…no, I'm fun," he answered, though her question was most certainly a rhetorical one.

She turned and pointed up the road. "Walk, Castle," she told him, stepping aside and allowing him to move on ahead of her. She touched at the matching purple mark on her own neck as she followed behind, and she couldn't help but smile. He was fun. And she knew it.

The wind picked up as they walked on in a seemingly endless straight line. They were side by side now, the coats at their elbows brushing against each other in stride. They'd been bypassed by several speeding semi-trucks in the darkness already, Castle offering Beckett reassurances each time, as was his way.

"You know, I actually didn't think it was possible for you to be quiet for this long," Beckett teased after a while, nudging Castle with her arm. It was the first time either of them had said a word since the last truck whooshed by them in a roar. "You okay? Medically, I mean."

"O ye of little faith, Detective. You'd be surprised at the things I'm capable of," he replied with a purposely bawdy tone. "Didn't really seem like you were too into the music thing, so I figured I'd give you a break. Why, may I ask, are you so quiet this evening? Just enjoying the scenery?" he joked.

Beckett sighed, her breath swallowed by the breeze. "I'm just wondering how the hell I'm going to explain all of this to Montgomery. That is if we ever actually make it back to the precinct. He's gonna be pissed." When she looked to her left, Castle was no longer there. "What…Castle?" She spun around and saw that he'd stopped a few steps back. "What's wrong?"

He pointed out across the barren field to their right. "Look," he said, "just like in Close Encounters." There was an old white farmhouse off in the distance, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and its porch light was on like a beacon in the night. He stepped toward Beckett. "You have your gun, right?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"I've seen enough horror movies to know what happens in farmhouses out in the middle of nowhere," he answered and took off towards the house in a jog. "Come on!"

"Just great," she mumbled and started after him.

 **xxxx**

Beckett grabbed for Castle's coat and pulled him to a halt as they neared the farmhouse's front porch. Despite the hour, light shone through windows on both the first and second floors, but from where they stood they couldn't see anyone moving around inside. The wind blew threw a twisted set of chimes that hung from branch near the screen door and the resulting song bordered on melancholy. "Let me go first," she said. "Just in case."

"No argument here, partner," Castle quickly submitted. "I'll be right here if you need me."

"Sure, Castle, thanks" she huffed and moved for the screen door, hand at her hip. It creaked in most clichéd fashion when she pulled at it and stepped the short distance to the door inside. Castle kept his feet cemented to the ground where he stood but leaned his body as far over as he possibly could in order to try and keep a watchful eye. Beckett knocked softly at the inner door's large pane of glass, draped there in a translucent curtain trimmed in yellowing lace, and she waited but heard no sound. There was no bell to speak of, but looking at the state of the house, she realized it probably wouldn't work if there was, so she called out a hello with her subsequent knock - that one more dogged than the first - and a shadow finally came into view from beyond the drape.

"Well, hello there," the silver-haired woman said as she took Beckett in. "May I help you, honey?"

Beckett's hand dropped from her waist and all the muscles in her body settled to calm. "I'm very sorry to bother you, ma'am, but-"

"Betty, dear, please. Only my students called me ma'am," the woman interrupted sweetly.

"Ah, Betty, yes, thank you. Betty, my partner and I had some car trouble down the road and I'm wondering if we might use your phone to call for help." Beckett took a step back and hollered for Castle who was still waiting out on the lawn.

"Oh, you won't get Jimmy out here at this hour, honey," Betty told her. "But come on in and I'll make us some tea. It's awfully cold out there tonight."

At Beckett's all-clear signal, Castle made his way inside, stopping in his tracks just beyond the screen door with a grin of relief; one look at Betty and all previous horror movie notions faded from his mind. He extended a hand and introduced himself, impressing Betty with his gentlemanly way, and Kate did the same, realizing she'd impolitely neglected to do so though she'd already asked the perfect stranger to allow her into her home in the middle of the night to use the phone. Twenty minutes later the three were sitting together around Betty's kitchen table with mugs of hot tea.

 **xxxx**

"Thanks again for the tea, Betty," Beckett said, still waiting for an opportune window to inquire again about help with the car. "We really are sorry for interrupting your night." Her mug was now empty and her bladder full, not to mention the distant beat of the headache she could sense approaching. "Ah, may I…would you mind if I used your restroom?"

"Oh, certainly, honey, it's just down that hallway there on the right. You'll have to excuse the mess. I wasn't expecting company," Betty said with a soft chuckle of embarrassment.

Beckett heard Castle and Betty giggle as she walked the hallway and she felt a warm flush. Castle always seemed to be the right person to be stuck with in unusual situations. He always carried an ease and a sense of optimism with him, and though it sometimes pained her to admit it, deep down she was always grateful for it.

Castle was smiling at Beckett like the cat that swallowed the canary when she returned from the restroom, his delight almost palpable. Betty was nowhere to be seen, her mug still in its place at the table, but the ceiling above them creaked and ticked with the movement of someone's weight and Castle clearly knew why.

"Where's Betty?" Beckett asked, taking her seat once again. "We really need to figure out how we're going to get out of here." Always focused and never distracted was the Kate Beckett way.

"Oh, she went to get the guest room ready for us," Castle answered gleefully into the echo of his already empty mug. He was smiling. She couldn't see it.

"The _what_? Why the hell is she doing that?" She'd been in the restroom less than five minutes and everything had gotten away from her. She glared at Castle, awaiting an answer and wanting nothing more than to wring his neck.

"You don't sound very grateful for the hospitality, Detective. She's just a kind old lady who wants to lend a hand to stranded couple is all." He didn't even try to drop the word in subtly. In fact, he relished the opportunity to watch as it hit her.

"A _couple_ , Castle?" she hissed exasperatedly.

"Her word, not mine. I didn't have the heart to break it to her," he said smugly.

Beckett drove her hands through her hair in frustration. "You are unbelievable. We are not-"

"Okay, you two," Betty said, stepping back into the kitchen. "It's not The Ritz, but it's warm and good 'til morning. I'm always up before the rooster crows, so I'll give Jimmy a ring and have him out here bright and early for you." Castle and Beckett both pushed from the table and stood, Beckett's hands both fisted in her pockets, Castle's eyes bright with amusement. "Can't say as I've seen such a pretty pair in a long time. You remind me of my husband and I back in the day - same twinkle in your eye."

"Well, Betty, what can I say? Love does that," Castle replied, reaching out a hand for Beckett. "Come on, sweetie, let's go up and get us some sleep." Beckett bit her tongue and stepped around her chair. "You've been so kind, Betty. Thank you for taking in two wayward kids and for making them so comfortable." Beckett was anything but and he knew it. And he loved it.

"Top of the stairs on your left, dears. Tomorrow is another day," Betty told them and sent them on their way.

 **xxxx**

The guest room was small but comfortable, its walls covered in black and white photographs of a time long ago. The double bed was centered along the back wall and shelves of dusty books surrounded it on either side. It smelled of old paper and wood, but in a way that comforted not offended, and it felt warm, not only in its respite from the crisp of night, but also in its evocation of an appreciation for simplicity.

Castle perched himself along the end of the bed and watched as Beckett paced the limited space around him. "You know what Betty's going to think if you keep making the floor squeak like that," he warned wickedly. She stopped moving and turned to him with a huff. "Oh, come on, Detective, it's not that bad. It's just for one night and I promise you I don't have cooties. What other option do we have?"

"Castle, we're not-"

"Of course we're not, I know that," he jumped in. "What does it matter if she thinks we are? After tomorrow, we're never going to see little old Betty again. I mean, do you think she shooed us up here so she could call Page Six and rat us out? Please."

"No," she conceded, shaking her head. "I'm just frustrated, Castle. After everything that's happened tonight, I'm just frustrated." She dropped her coat on the stool in the corner. "Writing this whole up is going to be a joke."

"We'll figure it out, okay?" he said, in the most sincere tone she'd heard from him all night. There he was again, the person that somehow always helped her through. "Sleep?"

"Yeah," Beckett said and walked around the left side of the bed.

"You sleep on the left side, too? Funny," Castle said as he rolled to his left and climbed up the bed's right side. "This could be interesting."

Beckett's body went instantly stiff. "What do you mean interesting, Castle?" she asked sounding almost accusatory.

"Will you please relax," he said, pulling back the top blanket. "I didn't mean anything by it. I will be a perfect gentleman, trust me." He unbuttoned his shirt, let it fall to the floor and slid into bed like a giddy child at a slumber party. With his height, a fair portion of his lower legs dangled off the end of the mattress and Beckett couldn't help but laugh. "Sure, you laugh now," he said, "but with those legs, oh, you're going to be in the very same boat, Detective."

He was right, of course, her ankles hanging free beneath the covers. "Just one night," she sighed, her focus locked on the ceiling above, too deliberately so. They both remained there on their backs in the darkness, the size of the bed offering them little in the way of room to move without brushing against the other, and neither said a word for what felt like an eternity.

"Wanna play a game?" Castle asked finally, certain she was as awake as he still was.

She rotated her head on the pillow in his direction. "How did you know I was awake?"

"I can hear you thinking and, yes, you should be impressed…from all the way over here." They both giggled at the absurdity of their sleeping arrangement. "So, you want to?"

"Play a game?"

"Yeah," he said, "twelve-year-olds like games," he teased in a note back to her earlier slight.

"Like what, Castle? Truth or Dare?" Her mocking tone said everything her words didn't.

His body pushed out a deep cackle as though it was entirely out of his control. "If you think I wouldn't find a way to use _that_ to my incredible advantage, that injector must've really fried your brain tonight. No, I was thinking more of, say, Twenty Questions."

She could feel the temperature of her body climb a few degrees with his intimation. It wasn't that she never thought of Castle in that way - in a more than friendly way - but she always pushed it back down for mom reasons and broken reasons and friend reasons and now Josh reasons. But it was there, and sharing a bed - and a small bed at that - presented a pronounced challenge to her willpower that she couldn't ignore. "So much for being a gentleman," she sassed. Her mind drifted off in thought as she said it, though.

"Twenty Questions would be just fine, thanks."

"Okay, good," Castle said excitedly as he rolled his body onto its side to face her. "Oh, sorry, do you mind?"

"I-no," she stuttered. It was dark in the old guest room, but she could feel his breath on her skin as he completed the shift. "Am I going first?" She didn't realize how loaded the question sounded until it was already out.

"Interrogate away, Detective. That's your specialty."

It couldn't have been ten minutes later when her words began to slow and run together. Castle knew it would work. He knew it would help her drift to sleep. He knew her. That was the last thing he thought about as fatigue finally overtook him, too. That and what Truth or Dare might've been like.


End file.
